Who doesn’t like something for free? When you look at all the hundreds of free WordPress themes available out there, it would seem that people who spend money on Premium themes are wasting their hard-earned cash… Or do they know something we don’t?

Let’s find out the different between premium and freemium WordPress themes.

Free WordPress Themes Explained

Free themes are great in the sense that you can simply download and use it – the perfect solution for people who are just starting out online. You save money on the theme and you don’t have to hire a developer and a designer to fine-tune it for you.

Although free themes don’t come with WordPress support, you can usually obtain some info from the community. If you’re lucky enough, you may just find the perfect theme that works for your site with minimal customization.

However, the problem most of us have, is that every other theme looks amazing, but once you activate it and start using it, you find out that it is nothing like what you had in mind. Other issues with free themes include the fact that:

  • many popular blogs posts lists of free themes, which means that the better ones are scooped up by thousands of users. As a result, your site can’t be unique if you use a free theme.
  • they are created by amateurs with little to no coding experience, thus making you vulnerable to security breaches. Poor coding also affects your rankings and SEO options.
  • developers don’t offer support, which means that you’re pretty much on your own when it comes to sorting out issues.
  • updates are infrequent or completely lacking.
  • they often contain link injections, encrypted spam links, and malicious code.

The Premium Difference

Premium themes are developed by experienced developers, particularly when you look at the Genesis framework and premium child themes from StudioPress.

While a premium theme may cost up to $50, you get so much more value in terms of quality, clean code, WordPress support, and increased customization.

Which to Choose: Premium or Freemium?

If you’re just going to be experimenting with a personal website to get to know WordPress, by all means opt for a freemium theme. It is great for personal bloggers.

However, if you’re building a business site and professionalism, quality code and a high standard of WordPress support matter to you, then you must opt for premium.

Need advice? Get in touch!